DEVELOPING AN ONLINE CURRICULUM FOR AN INTERNATIONAL AND INTER-DISCIPLINARY MASTER PROGRAMME. A CASE REPORT OF A DAAD FUNDED PROJECT IN GERMANY

Abstract

This paper describes the methodology of the ongoing efforts to design and integrate an online curriculum as an additional track to an existing, well-established interdisciplinary master programme for international students studying remotely and asynchronously with on-site students. We aspire to integrate online teaching and learning into in-person lectures so that both online and on-site students profit from the joint educational experience. During the initial orientation, we conducted a field-based investigation to define the problem, analysed the context, and assessed needs of the involved stakeholders. Prominent outputs of this phase were a literature review, a SWOT analysis of the target setting, a synopsis of stakeholder needs and wishes, and course goals. This enabled us to devise communication strategies with the stakeholders, define learning objectives, and course transformation plans to feed the design of new learning scenarios combining elements of online teaching and learning (OTL) with traditional on-site teaching. These integrate into communication tools that build on mixed student teams of online and on-site students working collaboratively.